You Are Hokage
by Mononoke-hime x sukai kurora
Summary: As Sasuke and Naruto lie between the real of life and death at the end of chapter 662, we are left with the question of who will survive. "Neither can live while the other survives."


_You Are Hokage_

Uchiha Sasuke motionlessly crumpled to the ground. He saw the back of the elder Uchiha – Uchiha Madara, become fainter and fainter as his eyesight dimmed. His breathing grew shallow, and his hands no longer moved. Dark blood pooled into the ground – _his _blood – and soaked his clothes and the rocks beneath him. _I…can't die… _Sasuke tried to lift his head, but found his body numb to all else expect the cold that held him. _It's so cold… _He felt his eyes close. His heartbeat was becoming weaker by the second. _I must create…a real village…until I demonstrate…what a real Kage is. _As a sighing breath left his body, Sasuke's last thought was of his brother.

The teen shinobi woke to find himself surrounded by light. There was nothing in sight. The battleground had disappeared. The screams and sighs of war had ceased to echo in his ears. It was as if nothing but this moment existed. Sasuke hissed in sudden pain when the light suddenly became brighter, and he was about to close his eyes when he heard a voice.

_That…voice…_ Sasuke's eyes winded as the person came closer to him. He couldn't hear the footsteps, as if the person was walking on air. His hands shook as his eyes took in the growing appearance of the figure. _But…this can't…be… _No, it wasn't a person. There were to people in front of him now, both faintly smiling.

"Mother…Father…" Sasuke forced himself to not appear weak in front of them. So much time had passed since he had last seen them. He now was taller than his mother, and how was it that the imposing man that had been his father appeared frail before his eyes? Tears threatened to flow from his eyes as he continued to stare in disbelief at his mother and father.

Suddenly he felt a warm hand caress his cheek. "You've grown, Sasuke."

"Mother…" The crack in his voice filled his ears, and he didn't have to know that he was crying. His mother didn't hold him or comfort him. She just stayed there, letting him know that she was there. Although Sasuke would not admit this, at times when he could not sleep, he wished from the time of the massacre that he could hear her call his name again. Hearing his name called by the person who had unconditionally loved him would be the only reason he could keep his sanity. "Mother…I…"

"I know," she said. Sasuke knew that without looking into her eyes that she knew everything that had occurred after her death. _Everything. _A part of him deep inside had wondered if she would have been furious with him if she knew how he had abandoned Konohagakure and severed the bonds he had become close to him, but he saw no judgment in her face. Even his father's face was passive. "I know that you suffered because of our clan's decision, and I'm sorry for that. You carried that hatred of so many inside you despite eating away your humanity inside. I'm not judging you because the path of all Uchiha are bloody, including mine." Sasuke stared at his mother as her smile became a thin line, and tried with fail imagining his mother's bloody history. Before he could speak, his mother spoke to him again. "I was…so happy when you made the decision to protect the village, but Sasuke, you choice has to be your own someday. Do not carry our ghosts with you like you did with us." His mother spoke calmly without violent emotion. She spoke to him with true love and acceptance, just as she did when she was a child.

"Sasuke." The young shinobi turned to his father. "I was pleased at the time when you took the path of darkness. You would have been honoring us and the Uchiha name. However, as time when on, I shouldered a sense of guilt. It was because of my decision that the coup failed, and it was because of me that you became who you are." Uchiha Fugaku didn't express any emotion, but Sasuke noticed how he clenched his hands against his chest as he spoke. "I am…sorry." Sasuke noticed how his father looked him in the eye for the first time, his expression guilt-ridden. He wasn't just apologizing for his actions that had shadowed Sasuke all his life, but for his coldness to him as a child, never expressing the love had felt towards him until his death.

"It's alright," Sasuke replied. "What happened was what happened. I don't blame you for what happened…or anyone, anymore. Since I found out the truth…I've been noticing that my hatred has been fading. All my life since the massacre, I have had hatred inside me, running through me, and making me stronger. I have something else now…something that I know I will achieve. I can't…let _niisan_'s sacrifice be for nothing."

"Your dream is a noble on indeed, Sasuke. But…will you allow your brother's shadow to and his meaning for living shadow your own life?"

Sasuke thought. He remembered how agonized and betrayed he had felt when Tobi had told him that his brother had been used by Konohagakure to protect peace. In that regard to what Madara had said, Sasuke agreed with him. He understood the origins behind Madara's decision. Both of them had lost the person who had meant the world to them. But it was Sasuke's goal to allow something like that to never happen again.

"I may not love Konohagakure. I may not even like Konohagakure…but I will protect the village my brother sacrificed everything for, and someday, I will become a Kage that my brother was."

Sasuke's father nodded at his statement, and his mother faintly smiled. He felt the pride escape from them, and for a moment, he was happy that he had finally made them proud.

Suddenly their bodies were disappearing, and Sasuke in vain tried to make out the words his mother and father were whispering to him. He couldn't. A sudden pain ripped through his body, and his screams echoed in the light.

It wasn't until he awoke with Sakura above him, wailing, that the last words of his mother and father echoed in his ears. Sasuke slightly turned his head and saw Uzumaki Naruto's limp form being cradled in Hinata's arms. The girl wasn't crying, wasn't shedding a tear as she held Naruto's empty face against hers. She was whispering something so softly not even Sasuke could hear it – perhaps it was better that way. As the rain started to drench his clothes and seep the blood away, Sasuke thought again of what his parents had told him. He thought of their last statement.

_"You…are Hokage." _


End file.
